2 - Tapah: Going Deeper through Austerity | Swami Tattwamayananda

Verses: I.1, III.1, III.2, III.3. This discourse was given on July 28, 2019 at the Lake Tahoe Retreat run by the Vedanta Society of Northern California by Swami Tattwamayananda.
-God is the one all-pervading spiritual reality.
-The five stages of the evolution of Godhead: pantheism, panentheism, polytheism, monotheism, monism.
-After inquiry, Bhrigu the young boy is instructed by his father Varuna: seek to know that from which all things are born, by which they remain alive, and into which, by departing, they enter.
-Varuna’s approach to teaching is indirect. He begins by teaching what is in front of us: food, air, sight, hearing, mind, and speech and asking the disciple to inquire deeper through tapah.
-Shankaracharya explains that tapah, austerity, means withdrawing from external senses and focusing on one ideal. Buddha’s example is given. All other great achievements are a result of this tapah.
-Yudisthara’s said that the greatest wonder is that even though living beings are dying every moment, we forget and think we will live forever.
-Bhrigu’s first discovers that matter seems to be Brahman. This is the conclusion of material scientists. But he himself realizes that this can’t be correct. Sri Ramakrishna’s parable of the woodcutter explains the importance of going deeper into spiritual inquiry. Sincere inquiry and tapa naturally led to Bhrigu’s realization of the need to go further. This doubt, parinama duhkha in Patanjal’s Yoga Sutras, is a force that propels you forward in spiritual life.
-At the next stage Bhrigu realizes that prana, life force, is Brahman. He again asks his father for instruction. When the mind is pure, the mind becomes your spiritual teacher.
-Both prana and matter are changing so they are still not the ultimate principle.
-In Bhakti, this tapah can be understood as self-surrender, prapatti.
-Tapah without a spiritual ideal can be lead to aberrations. A spiritual ideal, and ethical disciplines such as yamas and niyamas, close negative channels and help us to evolve an inner filter mechanism that protects us.

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Swami Tattwamayananda’s exposition of the TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD was given at the Lake Tahoe Retreat run by the Vedanta Society of Northern California, San Francisco (founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1900) from July 27, 2019, to August 4, 2019, in a series of 9 lectures.

The Taittiriya Upanisad comprise the 7th, 8th, and 9th chapters of the larger Taittiriya Aranyaka that belongs to the Yajur Veda tradition. The Upanishad contains 31 anuvakas (lessons): 12 in the Siksa-valli, 9 in the Ananda-valli, and 10 in the Bhrigu-valli. Sri Shankaracharya’s (788-820 CE) commented on the Taittiriya Upanishad and “the fact that he cited from it 147 times in his Brahma-Sutra-Bhashya speaks volumes for its authoritativeness.” (Sarvananda, Taittiriyopanishad 5)

Before Sri Shankaracharya, the idea of Advaita or nondualistic philosophy existed because it is as old as Rig Veda itself, but the formulation of a complete and compact philosophical structure, expounding its metaphysics, ontology, cosmology, logic, and epistemology, was entirely his contribution.

Swami Tattwamayananda, currently the Minister of the Vedanta Society of Northern California, San Francisco, (originally founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1900) served in various centers of the Ramakrishna Order in India as editor, publisher, and teacher of Sanskrit, Advaitic texts such as Sri Shankaracharya's commentaries on the 'Prasthanatraya' (the fundamental Sanskrit texts of Vedanta philosophy), Buddhism and Indian philosophy. He underwent traditional training in Hindu scriptures, Sanskrit, Vedic and Vedantic literature for many years, from his early days. Before coming to the United States in January 2012 he was teaching Sanskrit, Vedantic scriptures and Indian philosophy at the Training center in Belur Math, the institution that trains the monks of the Ramakrishna Order at the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, Kolkata, India. Apart from his traditional education, the Swami has also received modern University education in English literature, psychology, European history, and Western philosophy. He is frequently invited for lectures on Yoga, Vedanta, and traditional Hindu scriptures and for participating in interfaith dialogues.

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Works Cited:
Sarvananda, Swami. Taittiriyopanishad. Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai-4, 2015.